CHRIS RICE COOPER is a newspaper writer, feature stories writer, poet, fiction writer, photographer, and painter. She maintains a blog at https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com. She has a Bachelor's in Criminal Justice and completed all of her poetry and fiction workshops required for her Master’s in Creative Writing with a focus on poetry. She, her husband Wayne, sons Nicholas and Caleb, cats Nation and Alaska reside in the St. Louis area.

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

#35 Backstory of the Poem "Sobriety" by Timothy Gager . . .

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***This is the thirty-fifth
in a never-ending series called BACKSTORY OF THE POEM where the Chris
Rice Cooper Blog (CRC) focuses on one specific poem and how the poet wrote
that specific poem. All BACKSTORY OF THE POEM links are at the end
of this piece.

Can you go through the
step-by-step process of writing this poem from the moment the idea was first
conceived in your brain until final form?This is a short poem, and like most of what I write,
was formed from a visual element from a place I was at. It was conceived while
sitting, waiting for a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous to begin, a fellowship I
don’t hide the fact that I belong to. This particular meeting was at a location
which had comfortable sofas, and art on the wall. There was a newcomer sitting
there, just starting at this Piccaso reprint, and also, the other
art---so,I wanted to tell this person
that sobriety can exist, be comfortable, take it in small steps, one day, one
hour at a time, just like that painting you were staring at, was made—one brush
stroke at a time, and it took a lot of brush strokes. (Title Photo-Timothy Gager on 10-14-2018 and Above Right Timothy Gager on January 3, 2014. Copyright permission for both photos granted by Timothy Gager for this CRC Blog Post Only)

I also wanted to say
that to her that coffee is a mainstay at meetings, so drink it, and not
anything else. (Left: Timothy Gager drinking a cup of coffee in July of 2015. Copyright permission granted by Timothy Gager for this CRC Blog Post Only)

I don’t know if I had
a specific process with this particular poem. It probably began with the first
two lines, followed by free writing. Then, I balanced the lines, the stanzas,
tossed out what didn’t work---made sure the beginning and ending of the poem worked
to my liking.

When I fine tune I like double meanings, for example “Sit on the sofa, legs curled under…” as one line it’s the person’s legs, but if you take
it a line at a time, it’s the sofa…not making the person comfortable, the
physical wooden legs curling under, or “view the oil paintings, hung boats and
fields” The paintings are hung, the boats are hung, the fields are hung. It’s
general, and it’s specific to the art. (Image I Told Him: A Complete Portrait of Picassa, 1932. Gertrude Stein sitting on a sofa in front of a painting of herself by Picassa at her residence at 27 Rue de Fleurus.)

Where were you when you
started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great
detail? I went home and started the poem. My work space is a desk with a laptop on
it, in the corner of my living room, faced away from the television. The desk
area is full of papers, and they surround the laptop on three of the four
sides

What month and year did you start writing this poem?I have absolutely no idea. Anywhere
after 2014 and before 2017 (Timothy in July of 2014. Copyright permission granted by Timothy Gager for this CRC Blog Post Only)

How many drafts
of this poem did you write before going to the final? (And can you share a
photograph of your rough drafts with pen markings on it?)This poem took 8-10 drafts. I edit on the computer so
there are no pen marked papers. I work
with a lot of musicality and after some time I fairly aware of my poetic voice.
I’m fond of the delete button for the final draft if things don’t work out. (Left: Timothy Gager in March of 2015. Copyright permission granted by Timothy Gager for this CRC Blog Post Only)

Were there any lines in
any of your rough drafts of this poem that were not in the final version? And
can you share them with us?Heck, I’m
getting old. I have no idea what was edited out. (Right: Timothy Gager in December of 2016. Copyright permission granted by Timothy Gager for this CRC Blog Post Only)

What do
you want readers of this poem to take from this poem?That there is hope after surrendering. Which part of the poem
was the most emotional of you to write and why?The ending. It’s the awe of a journey’s beginning
and a journey, in general.I’ve very
grateful from where I’ve come from, and I can get emotional about it (Left: Timothy Gager in March of 2017. Copyright permission granted by Timothy Gager for this CRC Blog Post Only)

Has this poem been
published before? And if so where?published in the book, Chief Jay Strongbow is Real, 2017, Big Table
Publishing

Anything you would like
to add?Keep writing people. There’s a lot
of very important things going on.

Sobriety

It
can exist

drink
coffee

milk,
three sugars,

stirred
with a straw.

Sit
on the sofa,

legs
curled under

view
the oil paintings

hung
boats and fields

thousands
of brush strokes

thousands

HEAR IT on Doug Holder's podcast at 25.25

Timothy Gager is the
author of fourteen books of short fiction and poetry. Every Day There Is Something About Elephants, a book of 108 flash
fictions, selected by over fifty-five editors, was released by Big Table
Publishing in 2018.

He's hosted the successful Dire Literary Series in
Cambridge, Massachusetts since 2001 and was the co-founder of The Somerville
News Writers Festival. He has had over 500 works of fiction and poetry
published and of which thirteen have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His
work has been read on National Public Radio.